Some 41,000 farmers applied to the new National Liming Programme by the closing date of April 20, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has announced.
The department said that the figures show “a huge interest” among farmers in the scheme, with 4.5 million tonnes of lime sought by the applicants, following a surge of applications in the week leading up to the closing date.
However, at a payment rate of €16/t, this would require a budget of more than €72 million if all lime sought was approved and claimed by farmers – nine times the scheme’s official budget of €8 million.
Annual tonnage of lime applied nationally in recent years, including on those farms ineligible under the scheme, has ranged from 700,000t to 1.3 million tonnes, some way off the 4.5 million tonnes that have been sought by applicants.
The average tonnage sought per applicant under the liming programme is just over 111t.
Despite the massive level of oversubscription, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue welcomed the application numbers for the programme, describing it as “a show of environmental strength” by farmers.
Commenting on the level of interest in the programme, Minister McConalogue said he will now assess how best to move forward in light of the “enormous demand”.
The department has confirmed that, in line with the programme’s terms and conditions, it will have to limit approvals to stay within the allocated budget for the programme. The department said it will be communicating directly with each applicant in due course.
“The innovative and pioneering National Liming Programme has been a huge success and underlines clearly how engaged farmers are in soil fertility and reducing their chemical fertiliser usage.
“I very much welcome how farmers have engaged with this new programme and the fact applications are well ahead of farming norms. This is a tremendous show of environmental strength by farmers,” the minister added.
He continued: “We need to correct soil pH on a significant proportion of our farmland to improve environmental and economic sustainability and reduce overall emissions from the sector.
“With this in mind, it is great to see how farmers have engaged in soil sampling over recent months and we will now hopefully see that translate into improved nutrient management planning resulting in targeted lime and fertiliser application,” Minister McConalogue commented.